1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink containing a solid solution of C.I. Pigment Red 202 and C.I. Pigment Violet 19 which are respectively a quinacridone pigment; an ink jet recording method, an ink cartridge, and an ink jet recording apparatus employing the ink.
2. Description of the Related Art
For recording of full-color images, generally are used a combination of four inks of subtractive three primary colors (yellow, magenta, and cyan) and a black color. To improve fastness properties of the image recorded by an ink jet recording method, inks (pigment inks) containing a pigment are widely used as the coloring material.
Lately, the quality of the image obtained by ink jet recording method has been highly improved, and is demanded to be nearly at the same level as the image obtained by silver-halide photography. For example, the image recorded with a pigment ink on a highly glossy recording medium (a glossy paper) tends to lower the glossiness. The glossiness of the recorded image is demanded not to be lowered with the color reproduction range kept broader.
In particular, the human visual sensation is very sensitive to the image in a red color region recorded with a magenta ink. Many techniques are disclosed for improving the color development of the image recorded with a magenta ink. Pigments used for the ink jet magenta ink are disclosed, for example, a solid mixture of C.I. Pigment Red 202 and C.I. Pigment Violet 19 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H10-219166, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-029728, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-282802, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-282810, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-285522).
Further for improving the color development of the recorded image, without limitation to the magenta inks, the particle size of the pigment and ratio of the primary particle size to the secondary particle size are defined (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-175880, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-002141).
As described above, no conventional magenta ink is capable of reproducing a color in the red region in the same quality as in silver-halide photography with high ink-storage stability without decrease of the glossiness.